The words you will hear are essentially those of James Allen's As a Man Thinkketh, thought and character. The apherism, as a man thinkketh in his heart, so is he, not only embraces the whole of a man's being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks.
His character being the complete sum of all his thoughts. As the plant springs from and could not be without the seed, so the acts of a man spring from the hidden seeds of thought and could not have appeared without them. This applies to those acts called spontaneous and unpremeditated as well as to those which are deliberately executed.
Act is the blossom of thought and joy and suffering are its fruits. Thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry. Thought in the mind hath made us.
What we are by thought was wrought and built. If a man's mind hath evil thoughts, pain comes on him as comes the wheel the ox behind. If man endures impurity of thought, joy follows him as his own shadow.
Sure. Man grows by law, not by artifice, and cause and effect are as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things. A noble character is not a thing of favor or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort and thought, the effect of long cherished association with high ideals.
An ignoble and bestial character by the same process is the result of the continued harboring of graveling thoughts. Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought, he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself.
He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace. By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends toward divine perfection. By the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast.
Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master. Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have been restored and brought to light, none is more gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this, that man is the master of thought, the molder of character, and the maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny. As a being of power, intelligence, and love, and the lord of his own thoughts, man holds the key to every situation, and contains within himself that transforming and regenerative agency by which he may make himself what he wills.
Man is always the master, even in his weakest and most abandoned state. But in weakness and degradation, he is the foolish master who misgoverns his household. When he begins to reflect upon his condition and to search diligently for the law upon which his being is established, he then becomes the wise master, directing his energies with intelligence and fashioning his thoughts to fruitful issues.
Such is the conscious master. And man can only thus become by discovering within himself the laws of thought which discovery is totally a matter of application, selfanalysis and experience. Only by much searching and mining are gold and diamonds obtained.
And man can find every truth connected with his being if he will dig deep into the mine of his soul. And that he is the maker of his character, the molder of his life, and the builder of his destiny. He may unervingly prove if he will watch, control, and alter his thoughts, tracing their effects upon himself, upon others, and upon his life and circumstances, linking cause and effect by patient practice and investigation, and utilizing his every experience even to the most trivial everyday occurrence, as a means of obtaining that knowledge of himself, which is understanding, wisdom, power.
In this direction, as in no other, is the law absolute, that he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knockketh it shall be opened. For only by patience, practice, and ceaseless import tuning can a man enter the door of the temple of knowledge. The body is the servant of the mind.
It obeys the orders of the mind, whether they be deliberate or automatic. At the bidding of evil, miserable thoughts, the body may sink rapidly into disease and decay. At the command of glad and beautiful thoughts, it may clothe itself with youthfulness and beauty.
Disease in health, like circumstances, are often rooted in thought. Sick thoughts may express themselves through a sick body. In Aboriginal societies, thoughts of fear have been known to kill a man as speedily as a bullet, and they are continually killing thousands of people in our society just as surely, though less rapidly.
People who live in fear of disease, are apt to become ill. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body and lays it open to illness and disease, while evil thoughts, even though they be no more than that, will soon shatter the nervous system. Strong, pure, and happy thoughts build vigor and grace.
The body is a sensitive plastic instrument which responds readily to the thoughts by which it is governed. And habits of thought will produce their own effects, good or bad, upon it. Out of a clean mind comes a clean life and a clean body.
Out of a defiled mind proceeds a defiled life and a corrupt body. Thought is the fountain of action, life and manifestation. Make the fountain pure and the stream of life will flow with greater purity.
Change of diet may little help a man who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes his thoughts healthy, he no longer desires unhealthy food. Clean thoughts make clean, healthy habits.
The so-called saint who does not wash his body may well not be a saint. If you would perfect your body, guard your mind. If you would renew your body, beautify your mind.
Thoughts of malice, envy, disappointment, despondency can rob your body of its health and grace. A sour face does not come by chance. It is made by sour thoughts.
Wrinkles that mar are drawn by folly, pride, and passion. I know a woman of 96 who has the bright innocent face of a girl. I know a man well under middle age whose face is drawn into inharmonious contours.
The one is the result of a sweet and sunny disposition. The other is the outcome of bad temper and discontent. As you cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode, unless you admit the air and sunshine freely into your rooms, so a strong body and a bright, happy, serene countenance can only result from the free admittance into the mind of thoughts of joy and goodwill and serenity.
On the faces of the aged, there are wrinkles made by sympathy, others by strong and pure thought, and others are carved by arrogance and resentment. Who cannot distinguish them? With those who have lived thoughtfully, age is calm, peaceful, and softly mellowed like the setting sun.
I have recently seen a philosopher on his deathbed. He was not old except in years. He died as sweetly and peacefully as he lived.
There is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills of malcontent. There is no comforter to compare with goodwill for dispersing the shadows of grief and sorrow. To live continually in thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion, and envy is to be confined in a self-made prison hole.
But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all. Is to live in sight of the very portals of heaven, and daybyday thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to their possessor. Thought and circumstances.
A man's mind may be likened to a garden which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild. But whether cultivated or neglected, it must and will bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein and will continue to produce their kind.
Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong and useless thoughts and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful and pure thoughts. By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals within himself the laws of thought and understands with everinccreasing accuracy how his mind operates in the shaping of his character, circumstances and destiny.
Thought and character are one. And as character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person's life will always be found to be related to his inner state. This does not mean that a man's circumstances at any given time are an indication of his entire character, but that those circumstances are so intimately connected with some vital thought within himself that for the time being they are indispensable to his development.
Every man is where he is by the law of his being. The thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there. And in the arrangement of his life, there is no lasting element of chance.
But all is the result of a law which cannot er. This is just as true of those who are discontented with their surroundings as of those who are contented with them. As an evolving being, man is where he is, that he may learn, that he may grow.
And as he learns the lesson which any circumstance contains for him, it passes away and gives place to other circumstances. Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be a creature entirely subject to outside conditions. But when he realizes that he is a creative power and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.
That circumstances grow out of thought. Every man knows who has for any length of time practiced self-control of his mind and thoughts. For he will have noticed that the alteration of his circumstances has been an exact ratio with his altered mental condition.
So true is this that when a man earnestly applies himself to remedy the defects in his character and make swift and marked progress, he passes rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes. The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reaches the height of its cherished aspirations.
It falls to the level of its unchasened desires and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own. Every thought seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind and to take root there produces its own blossoming sooner or later into act and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit.
Bad thoughts bad fruit. The outer world of circumstance is shaped by the inner world of thought and both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors which make for the ultimate good of the individual. As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both by suffering and bliss.
Following the inmost desires, aspirations, thoughts by which he allows himself to be dominated, pursuing the will of the wisps of vapid imaginings are steadfastly walking the highway of strong and high endeavor. A man at last arrives at their fruition and fulfillment in the outer conditions of his life. The laws of growth and adjustment everywhere obtained.
A man does not come to the arms house or the jail by the tyranny of fate or circumstance, but by the pathway of graveling thoughts and base desires. Nor does a high-minded man fall suddenly into crime by stress of any mere external force. The criminal thought had long been secretly fostered in the heart when the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered power.
Circumstance does not make the man. It reveals him. No such conditions can exist as descending into vice and its attendant sufferings apart from vicious inclinations or ascending into virtue and its happiness without the continued cultivation of virtuous aspirations.
And man therefore as the lord and master of thought is the maker of himself, the shaper and author of environment. The soul comes to its own through every step of its earthly pilgrimage. It attracts those combinations of conditions which reveal itself, which are the reflections of its own virtue and vice, its strength and weakness.
Men do not attract that which they say they want, but that which they are. Their whims, fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every step. But their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with the food of their own choosing.
The divinity that chaps our ends is in ourselves. It is our very self. Man is manicled only by himself.
Thought and action are the jailers of fate. They imprison being base. They're also the angels of freedom.
They liberate being noble. Not what he wishes and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns. His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they comport with his thoughts and actions.
In the light of this truth, what then is the meaning of fighting against circumstances? It means that a man is continually revoling against an effect without while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart. That cause may take the form of a conscious vice or an unconscious weakness.
But whatever it is, it stubbornly retards the efforts of its possessor and thus calls aloud for remedy. Men are anxious to improve their circumstances but are unwilling to improve themselves. They therefore remain bound.
The man who does not shrink from self-sacrifice can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set. This is as true of material as of spiritual things. Even the man whose sole object is to acquire wealth must be prepared to make great personal sacrifices before he can accomplish his object.
And how much more so he who would realize a happy, joyful life. Here is a man who is wretchedly poor. He is extremely anxious that his surroundings and home comforts should be improved.
Yet all the time he sherks his work and considers he's justified in trying to deceive his employer on the ground of the insufficiency of his wages. Such a man does not understand the simplest rudiments of those principles which are the basis of true prosperity and is not only totally unfitted to rise out of his wretchedness but is actually attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness by dwelling in and acting out indolent, deceptive and unmanly thoughts. Here is a rich man who is the victim of a painful and persistent ill health as the result of gluttony.
He's willing to give large sums of money to get rid of it, but he will not abandon his gluttony. He wants to gratify his taste for rich and harmful violence and have his health as well. Such a man is totally unfit to have health because he has not yet learned the first principles of a healthy life.
Here is an employer of labor who adopts crooked measures to avoid paying the regulation wage and in the hope of making larger profits reduces the wages of his workpeople. Such a man is altogether unfitted for prosperity and when he finds himself bankrupt both as regards reputation and riches he blames circumstances not knowing that he is the sole author of his condition. I've introduced these three cases merely as illustrative of the truth that man is the causer, though nearly always unconsciously, of his circumstances, and that while aiming at a good end, he may continually frustrate its accomplishment by thoughts and desires which cannot possibly harmonize with that end.
Such cases could be multiplied and varied almost indefinitely. But this is not necessary as you can, if you so resolve, trace the action of the laws of thought in your own mind and life. Until you do this, mere external facts are not likely to persuade you.
Circumstances, however, are so complicated. Thought is so deeply rooted in the conditions of happiness very so with individuals that a man's entire condition, although it may be known to himself, cannot be judged by another from the external aspect of his life alone. A man may be honest in certain directions yet suffer privations.
A man may be dishonest in certain directions yet acquire wealth. The conclusion usually formed, however, that the one man fails because of his particular honesty and that the other prospers because of his particular dishonesty is the result of a superficial judgment which assumes that the dishonest man is almost totally corrupt and the honest man almost entirely virtuous. In the light of a deeper knowledge and wider experience, such judgment is found to be erroneous.
The dishonest man may have some admirable virtues which the other does not possess. And the honest man obnoxious vices which are absent in the other. The honest man reaps the good results of his honest thoughts and acts.
He also brings upon himself the sufferings which his vices produce. And the dishonest man likewise garers his own sufferings and happiness. It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that one suffers because of one's virtue.
But not until a man has extrepated every vicious, bitter and resentful thought from his mind can he be in a position to know and declare that his sufferings are the result of his good and not of his bad qualities. And on the way to, yet long before he has reached that supreme perfection, he will have found working in his mind and life the great law which is absolutely just, and which cannot therefore give good for evil, evil for good. possessed of such knowledge, he will then know, looking back upon his past ignorance and blindness, that his life is and always was justly ordered, and that all his past experiences, good and bad, were the equitable outworking of his evolving yet unevolved self.
Good thoughts and actions can never in the long run produce bad results. Bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn.
Nothing from nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural world and work with it. But few understand it in the mental and moral world though its operation there is just as simple and undeviating and they therefore do not cooperate with it.
Mental suffering is always the effect of error in some direction. It is an indication that the individual is out of harmony with himself, with the law of his being. The sole and supreme use of such suffering is to correct and teach.
Mental suffering ceases for him who wise. There can be no object in burning gold after the dross has been removed, and the mind of a perfectly enlightened being cannot be agonized. The circumstances which a man encounters with suffering are the result of his own bleak outlook.
The circumstances which a man encounters with blessedness are again the result of his own attitude. Blessedness not material possessions is the measure of right. Wretchedness not lack of material possessions is the measure of wrong.
A man may be cursed and rich. He may be blessed and poor. Blessedness and riches are only joined together when the riches are wisely used.
And the poor man only descends into wretchedness when he regards his lot as a burden unjustly imposed. Indigence and indulgence are the two extremes of wretchedness. They are both equally unnatural.
A man is not rightly conditioned until he's a happy, healthy, and prosperous being. And happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer, of the man with his surroundings. A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life.
And as he adapts his mind to that regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition and builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts. Ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid progress and as a means of discovering the hidden powers and possibilities within himself. Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe.
Justice, not injustice, is the soul and substance of life. And righteousness, not corruption, is the molding and moving force in the spiritual government of the world. This being so, man has but to write himself to find that the universe is right.
And during the process of putting himself right, he will find that as he alters his thoughts towards situations and other people, situations and other people will alter toward him. The proof of this truth is in every person, and it therefore admits of easy investigation by systematic introspection and selfanalysis. Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will affect in the material conditions of his life.
Men imagine that thought can be kept secret but it cannot. It rapidly crystallizes into habit and habit solidifies into circumstance. Thoughts of fear, doubt and indecision crystallize into weak, unmanly and irresolute habits which solidify into circumstances of failure, indigence and slavish dependence.
Lazy, apathetic thoughts crystallize into habits of disorder, uncleanliness, and dishonesty, which solidify into circumstances of confusion, foulness, and beggory. Resentful and condemnatory thoughts crystallize into habits of accusation and violence, which solidify into circumstances of hate, injury, and persecution. On the other hand, beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify into genial and sunny circumstances.
Selfless thoughts crystallize into habits of temperance and self-control, which solidify into circumstances of repose and peace. Thoughts of courage, self-reliance, and decision crystallize into manly habits, which solidify into circumstances of strength and freedom. Energetic thoughts crystallize into habits of industry which solidify into circumstances of achievement.
Kind and loving thoughts crystallize into habits of considerateness for others which solidify into circumstances of abiding comfort. A particular train of thought persisted in be it good or bad cannot fail to produce its results of character and circumstances. A man cannot directly choose his circumstances but he can choose his thoughts and so indirectly yet surely shape his circumstances.
Nature helps every man to the gratification of the thoughts which he most encourages and opportunities are presented which will most speedily bring to the surface both the good and evil thoughts. Let a man choose his thoughts wisely and all the world will soften toward him and be ready to help him. Let him put away bad thoughts.
And lo, opportunities will spring up on every hand to aid his strong resolves. Let him encourage good thoughts. And no hard fate shall bind him down to wretchedness and shame.
The world is your kaleidoscope, the varying combinations of which at every succeeding moment it presents to you as the exquisitly adjusted pictures of your ever moving thoughts. You will be what you will to be. Let failure find its false content in that poor word environment.
But spirit scorns it and is free. It masters time. It conquers space.
It cows that boastful trickster chance and bids the tyrant circumstance uncrown and fill a servant's place. The human will, that force unseen, the offspring of a deathless soul, can hue away to any goal, though walls of granite intervene. Be not impatient in delay, but wait as one who understands.
When spirit rises and commands, the gods are ready to obey. Thought, purpose, and achievement. Until thought is linked with purpose, there is no intelligent accomplishment.
With the majority, the bark of thought is allowed to drift upon the ocean of life, aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction. They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pittityings, all of which are indications of weakness, which lead just as surely as deliberate wrongdoing by a different route to failure, unhappiness, and loss. For weakness cannot persist in a power evolving universe.
A man should conceive of a worthy purpose in his heart and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal or it may be a worldly object according to his nature at the time.
But whichever it is, he should steadfastly focus his thoughts upon the object which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into vague and ephemeral fancies. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought.
Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose, as he necessarily must until weaknesses overcome, the strength of character he earns will be the measure of his true success. And this will form a new starting point for future power and triumph. Those who are not prepared to conceive and dedicate themselves to a great purpose should fix their thoughts upon the faultless performance of their duty.
No matter how insignificant their tasks may appear, only in this way can the thoughts be gathered and focused and resolution and energy be developed which being done there is nothing that may not be accomplished. The weakest will, knowing its own weakness, and believing this truth that strength can only be developed by effort and practice, will thus believing at once begin to exert itself, and adding effort to effort, patience to patience, and strength to strength, will never cease to develop, and will at last grow strong. As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient exercise, so the man of weak thought can become strong by training himself in thinking.
To put away aimlessness and weakness and to begin to think with purpose is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment, who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully. Having conceived of this purpose, a man should prudently mark out a straight pathway to its achievement, looking neither to the right nor the left. Doubts and fears should be rigorously excluded.
They are disintegrating elements which break up the straight line of effort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual, useless. Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplish anything and never can. They always lead to failure.
Purpose and energy are weakened when doubt and fear creep in. The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. Doubt and fear are the great enemies of this knowledge.
And he who encourages them thwarts himself at every step. He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. His every thought is fought with power.
His difficulties wisely bravely met and overcome. His purposes are seasonably planted and they bloom and bring forth fruit which does not fall prematurely to the ground. Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force.
He who knows this is ready to become something higher and stronger than a mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations. He who does this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder of his mental powers. All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts.
In a justly ordered universe where loss of equipose means destruction, individual responsibility must be absolute. A man's weakness and strength, wisdom and folly are his own and not another man's. They are the product of himself and not another.
And they can only be altered by himself, never by another. His circumstances also are his own and not another man's. His suffering and his happiness revolve from within.
As he thinks, so is he. As he continues to think, so he remains. A strong man cannot help a weaker unless the weaker is willing to be helped.
And even then, the weak man must become strong of himself. He must by his own efforts develop the strength which he admires in another. None but himself can alter his condition.
It has been usual for men to think and to say, "Many men are slaves because one is an oppressor. Let us hate the oppressor. However, there is among an increasing few a tendency to reverse this judgment and to say, "One man is an oppressor because many are slaves.
Let us despise the slaves. " The truth is that oppressor and slave are cooperators in ignorance and while seeming to afflict each other are in reality afflicting themselves. A perfect knowledge perceives the action of law in the weakness of the oppressed and the misapplied power of the oppressor.
A perfect love, seeing the suffering which both states entail, condemns neither. A perfect compassion embraces both oppressor and oppressed. He who has conquered weakness and has put away selfish thoughts belongs neither to oppressor nor oppressed.
He is free. A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain weak and abject and miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts.
Before a man can achieve anything, even in worldly things, he must lift his thoughts above the animal level. He may not, in order to succeed, give up all animality and selfishness by any means, but a portion of it at least must be sacrificed. A man whose first thought is self-indulgence can neither think clearly nor plan methodically.
He cannot find and develop his latent resources and must fail in any undertaking. Not having commenced manfully to control his thoughts. He's not in a position to control affairs and to adopt serious responsibilities.
He's not fit to act independently and stand alone. He's limited by the thoughts which he chooses. There can be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice.
And a man's worldly success will be in the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts and fixes his mind on the development of his plans and the strengthening of his resolution and self-reliance. And the higher he lifts his thoughts, the more manly and upright he becomes, the greater will be his success, the more blessed and enduring will be his achievements. The universe does not favor the greedy, the dishonest, the vicious.
Although on the mere surface it may sometimes appear to do so. Its continuing abetment is for the honest, the magnanimous, the virtuous. All the great teachers of the ages have declared this in varying forms, and to prove and know it, a man has but to persist in lifting up his thoughts.
Intellectual achievements are the results of thought consecrated to the search for knowledge or for the beautiful and true in life and nature. Such achievements may be sometimes connected with vanity and ambition, but they're not the outcome of those characteristics. They are the natural outgrowth of long and arduous effort and of arduous searching thought.
Spiritual achievement is the consummation of aspiration. He who lives constantly in the conception of wise and noble thoughts, who dwells upon all that is elevating and unselfish, will as surely as the sun reaches its zenith and the moon its full, become knowledgeable and noble, and rise into a position of wisdom and blessedness. Achievement of whatever kind is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought.
By self-control, resolution, erudition, and well-directed thought, a man ascends. By animality, indolence, corruption, and confusion of thought, a man descends. A man may rise to high success in the world and to lofty altitudes in the spiritual realm and again descend into weakness and wretchedness by allowing arrogant, selfish and corrupt thoughts to take possession of him.
The victories attained by thought can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured and rapidly fall back into failure. Achievement whether in the business, intellectual or spiritual world is the result of definitely directed thought is governed by the same law and dependent upon the same method.
The only difference lies in the object of attainment. He who would accomplish little needs sacrifice little. He who would achieve much must sacrifice much.
He who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly. vision and ideals. The visionaries are the saviors of the world.
As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men through all their trials and sins and sorted vocations are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget its dreamers. It cannot let their ideals fade and die.
It lives in them. It feels in them the realities which it shall one day see and know. Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage.
These are the architects of paradise. The world is beautiful because they have lived. Without them, laboring humanity would perish.
He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it. Columbus cherished a vision of another world and he discovered it. Capernacus fostered the vision of a multiplicity of worlds in a wider universe and he revealed it.
Buddha beheld the vision of a spiritual world of stainless beauty and perfect peace and he entered into it. Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals.
Cherish the music that stirs in your heart. The beauty that forms in your mind. the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts.
For out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment. Of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built. To desire is to obtain.
To aspire is to achieve. Shall man's basis desires receive the fullest measure of gratification and his highest aspirations starve for lack of sustenance? Such is not the law.
Such a condition of things can never obtain. Ask and receive. Dram lofty dreams.
And as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be. Your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn. The bird waits in the egg.
And in the highest vision of the soul, a waking angel stirs. Drams are the seedlings of realities. Your circumstances may be uncongenial.
But they shall not long remain so of you but perceive an ideal and strive to reach it. You cannot travel within and stand still without. Here is a youth hardpressed by poverty and labor, confined long hours in an unhealthy workshop, unschooled and lacking all the arts.
But he dreams of better things. He thinks of intelligence, of refinement, of grace and beauty. He conceives of mentally builds up an ideal life.
The vision of a wider liberty and a larger scope takes possession of him. Unrest urges him to action, and he utilizes all his time and means, small though they are, to the development of his latent powers and resources. Very soon, so altered has his mind become, that the workshop can no longer hold him.
It has become so out of harmony with his mentality that it falls out of his life as a garment is cast aside. And with the growth of opportunities which fit the scope of his expanding ability, he passes out of it forever. Years later, we see this youth as a full-g grown man.
We find him a master of certain forces which he wields with worldwide influence and almost unequal power. In his hands, he holds the cords of gigantic responsibilities. He speaks and lo lives are changed.
Men and women hang upon his words and remold their characters and sunlike he becomes the fixed and luminous center around which innumerable destinies revolve. He has realized the vision of his youth. He has become one with his ideal.
And you too will realize the vision not the idol wish of your heart be it base or beautiful or a mixture of both. For you will always gravitate toward that which you secretly most love. Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts.
You will receive that which you earn. No more, no less. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain or rise with your thoughts, your vision, your ideal.
You will become as small as your controlling desire, as great as your dominant aspiration. In the beautiful words of Stanton Davis, "You may be keeping accounts, and presently you shall walk out of the door that for so long has seen to you the barrier of your ideals, and shall find yourself before an audience, the pen still behind your ear, the ink stains on your fingers, and then and there shall pour out the torrent of your inspiration. You may be driving sheep and you shall wander to the city bucolic and openmouthed shall wander under the intrepid guidance of the spirit into the studio of the master and after a time he shall say I have nothing more to teach you and now you have become the master who did so recently dream of great things while driving sheep.
The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say, "How lucky he is. " Observing another become intellectual, they exclaim, "How highly favored he is, and noting the character and wide influence of another, they remark, how chance aids him at every turn.
" They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience. They have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable and realize the vision of their heart. They do not know the darkness and the heartaches.
They only see the light and joy and call it luck. They do not see the long and arduous journey but only behold the present goal and call it good fortune. They do not understand the process but only perceive the result and call it chance.
In all human affairs there are efforts and there are results and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. Chance is not. Gifts, powers, material, intellectual and spiritual possessions are the fruits of effort.
They are thoughts completed, objects accomplished, visions realized. The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart, this you will build your life by, this you will become. Serenity.
Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought.
A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a thought evolved being. For such knowledge necessitates the understanding of others as the result of thought. And as he develops a right understanding and sees more and more clearly the internal relations of things by the action of cause and effect, he ceases to fuss and fume and worry and grieve and remains poised, steadfast, serene.
The calm man having learned how to govern himself knows how to adapt himself to others and they in turn reverence his spiritual strength and feel that they can learn of him and rely upon him. The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Even the most ordinary trader will find his business prosperity increases as he develops a greater self-control and equinimity.
For people will always prefer to deal with a man whose demeanor is strongly equitable. The strong, calm man is always loved and revered. He is like a shade-giving tree in a thirsty land or a sheltering rock in a storm.
Who does not love a tranquil heart, a sweetteered, balanced life? It does not matter whether it rains or shines or what changes come to those possessing these blessings for they are always cheerful, poised, calm. That exquisite poise of character which we call serenity is the last lesson of culture.
It is the flowering of life, the fruitage of the soul. It is precious as wisdom, more to be desired than gold, even fine gold. How insignificant mere money looks in comparison with a serenely joyous life.
A life that dwells in the ocean of truth beyond the waves out of the reach of tempests in the blessed calm. How many people we know who sour their lives who ruin all that is sweet and beautiful by explosive tempers who destroy their poise of character and make ill will. It is a question whether the great majority of people do not ruin their lives and mar their happiness by lack of self-control.
How few people we meet in life who are wellbalanced, who have the exquisite poise which is characteristic of the finished person. Yes, humanity surges with uncontrolled emotion, is tumultuous with ungoverned grief, is blown about by anxiety and doubt. Only the wise man, only he whose thoughts are controlled makes the winds and the storms obey him.
Tempest tossed souls, wherever you may be, under whatsoever conditions ye may live, know this. In the ocean of life, the isisles of blessedness are smiling, and the sunny shore of your ideal awaits your coming. Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought.
In the bark of your soul reclines the commanding master. He does but sleep. Wake him.
Self-control is strength. Thought is mastery. Calmness is power.
Say unto your heart, "Peace. Be still.
